Cheese Kit Kats from Japan

One of the girls from work has just come back from two weeks in Japan with her family.  As she ran out the door on her last day of work, I yelled out, 'can you bring me back some Japanese Kit Kats?'


This is what she brought back...

When you open the pack, it definitely smells of cheese, a kind of parmesan smell.  The cheese Kit Kats look and taste like white chocolate Kit Kats.  


I offered some cheese Kit Kats to some of my other workmates.  Wholesale screwing up of faces at the thought.  I didn't mind them, which is just as well, because no-one else shows any inclination to eat any of them!


HaikuGirl has a website called MyKitKats and she has also tried these cheesy chocs.


If you want to see what other unusual Kit Kat flavours there are, check some of them out on Flickr.  Earlier this year when I first heard about the enormous and unusual range of Kit Kat flavours, I got a bit carried away and bought some Kit Kats from Japan on Ebay.  

African Taste, Seddon

Everyday when I walk home from West Footscray train station after work, I pass African Taste.  It is a curious looking place in that it is the only African place in/near Seddon.  Most others in the area are in Footscray.

The Bloke went to a mid-week soccer game to see Victory play.  I dropped him at the train station and then headed out for some food of my choosing.  I checked out the menu and decided on a gnocchi type dish.

Genfo African fufu (gnocchi with chicken) $15.95 (without chicken $10.95)

The gnocchi made with toasted barley flour was soft and nutty, the sauce had a decent hit of chili but not too much and the yoghurt on top swirled through the dish was delicious.  You can have the dish with just the gnocchi or with extras, such as the chicken or lamb or fish or spinach/ricotta.  The extras are $5.00.   

In Africa, fufu is also made from other carbohydrates such cassava, yams or rice and is served in a dish and people roll balls of it to eat. Serving it as gnocchi is probably a bit more manageable I guess. 

I got talking to the lady who served me.  She and her husband own African Taste.  They are Eritrean, though the menu has dishes from different parts of Africa.  The husband and wife both cook.  The service was so helpful and friendly.  I had mentioned it was my first time to African Taste so they were very helpful explaining the menu and were very welcoming.  

I couldn't eat all my meal so I took some home in a takeaway container.  It was delicious cold later that night...I was too tired and lazy to reheat it.

They also have breakfast from 10am on the weekends.  When I was arrived the next Sunday, it was getting on for 10 minutes past 10am, before they arrived.  I went for a walk for 10 or 15 minutes while they got themselves set up.  

I chose the ful or (ful medames), a dish of beans cooked till they are soft. It is a popular dish in north African countries.  It was one of the tastiest inexpensive breakfast dishes I've had for some time.  The ful was served on a thin and fluffy omelette with chopped parsely in it (could have been other herbs, but I could just taste parsley)  The dish was topped with chopped fresh tomato, a little fetta some red chili sauce which the lady (from the previous evening I was there) said was Berbere and you stir it through.  Now that is quite a hot sauce.  I don't mind some chili, but if you're not chili fan, it is proably best not to stir the sauce through.

Ful ($10.00)

The dish was quite filling, I left about 3 pieces of pita bread and ate the rest.  I was really eating because it was there and so delicious.  I would happily order this one again!

The coffee was pretty good too ($3.00).  

I am looking forward to going back again.  It is a great local place with food that is delicious and great value and the owners make the dining experience so good.

African Taste

124 Victoria Street

Seddon

Ph: 9687 0560

Closed Tuesdays

Open from about 5 on weekdays

Open from 10am on weekends

BYO corkage $5.00

When you order after 7pm there is $1.50 surcharge.  

City BBQ, Chinatown, Melbourne CBD

 My first visit to City BBQ was due to an orange-coloured squid hanging in the window amongst the BBQ ducks, chickens and pork.

In the November 2010 issue of Gourmet Traveller, there is an article by Wilson Chung on page 106 that '...answers all your Chinese barbecue questions.'  Wilson talks about roast duck, soy-sauce chicken, white-cut chicken, barbecue pork, quail, pigeon, squab, roast pork, suckling pig, Chinese sausage and 'the other stuff.'  The other stuff includes offal and seafood.  What particularly intrigued me was the orange cuttlefish or squid (muk yiu).  I've seen it occasionally in the windows of Chinese bbq places.  I decided that I needed to try this cuttlefish.


I wandered around the Chinatown precinct in Melbourne past the bbq places that I could vaguely remember.  Mid week and City BBQ was the only place I could see with a squid in the window.  When I went back later in the week, there no squids, so I don't know if they only cook a few, or they sell out, not sure.  


The waitresses were very helpful.  I asked about the squid and that I'd like to try some.  They suggested having with rice and vegetables.  I ordered some roast duck to go with it.

Roast duck, squid, rice and bok choy $9.80

The warm duck was soft and delicious.  The squid, served cold, was surprisingly tender.  I would order the squid (muk yiu) again.   

Tea in a tall glass

My second visit was due to a sudden urge to try century eggs.  During my first visit, I had seen on the menu a dish, congee served with sliced pork and century egg.  When you see century eggs cut in half, they look like agate gemstones cut in half, quite beautiful.


The congee was not too bad, needed a touch of salt and pepper.  It had fine shreds of ginger through it, which seems fairly typical for congee.  The pork was soft and mild.  The pieces of egg were okay.  The outer part of the egg didn't have too much taste, the yolk was quite rich.  I read somewhere that it is kind of like blue cheese.  After tasting it I would agree.  If you don't like blue cheese, you may not go for the century eggs.  I didn't mind it and would eat it again if it crossed my path.

Congee with pork and century egg $9.80

My third visit was to try some pork ribs and lotus root.  I'd seen a recipe for something similar on the internet so I was curious to try it.

Pork ribs with lotus root $9.80

The lotus root was my main reason for trying the dish.  It was tender with a bit of crunch, but the pork ribs were a revelation.  The meat was tender, juicy and tasty on the bone in a very flavourful sauce.  It was one of the tastiest dishes I've had in some time.  
 

Che chuoi chung - Delicious Vietnam #7

Che are the sweet desserts or puddings of Vietnam.  Wikipedia has an extensive list of che.  At Little Saigon Market in Footscray, there is a pretty decent range of che available to buy.  I try a few from time to time, trying to figure out what is in them.  There are also desserts using sticky rice (xoi).  Xoi can also be used in savoury dishes.  

I found a recipe for Che Chuoi Chung in the cookbook 'Secrets of the Red Lantern' by Pauline Nguyen with recipes by Luke Nguyen and Mark Jensen.  The recipe contains two of my favourite dessert items, tapioca pearls and coconut cream.  Here is a link to the recipe.  There are quite a few versions of che chuoi chung recipes on the net.

The recipe involves cooking tapioca and diced cassava in some sugar, water and coconut cream.  Towards the end of the cooking time, you add some salt and some sliced bananas and top with  roasted peanuts and toasted sesame seeds.

Tapioca pearls

Cooked tapioca

Peeled frozen cassava

Diced cassava

Cooked cassava

Sugar bananas

Roasted peanuts

Toasted sesame seeds

Che chuoi chung

Che chuoi chung ticked all the boxes! Creamy and coconuty with lovely crunch of peanuts and toasted sesame seeds.  The cassava has the taste and texture of a mix of potato and parsnip.  When I make it again, I will add more tapioca pearls and add banana for only a few minutes at the end.   I put the leftovers in the fridge and reheated it in the microwave the next night.  Equally delicious reheated.

I bought a tub of che chuoi chung from To's at Little Saigon Market (To's have a bakery on the corner of Leeds Street and Hopkins Street).  They make it Thursday, Friday and Saturday and you can get it warm from the bain marie.   I bought mine on a Sunday and it was cold in the fridge.  I got home  and tucked into it.  This che is delicious cold too.  I preferred my home made version, but if I am out and can't be bothered making it, would definitely head back to To's again.

My Malaysian friend C mentioned a version of this dish he cooks.  He adds a handful of cooked adzuki beans at the end and uses no banana.  He serves the dish cold and adds diced mango to  it.   From what I have read, I think the dish is a version of Bubur cha cha or pengat pisang.  Will be trying those variations too.  So many desserts to make/eat!!

This month's Delicious Vietnam is hosted by Miss.Adventure@Home.  She has done a round-up of all the entries here.

Delicious Vietnam was created by Anh at A Food Lovers Journey and Hong and Kim at Ravenous Couple to celebrate Vietnamese Food.

Banh cuon at Thanh Tam, Richmond

In some Vietnamese cafes at Little Saigon Market in Footscray, I  have seen plates in the bain-marie loaded with thick soft white rice paper rolls filled with something.  I tried asking what the dish was, but with the staff's lack of English and my lack of Vietnamese, I hit a dead end.


I tried Googling 'rice noodle sheets' on Google Images and found out the dish is called banh cuon.  I have seen recipes for banh cuon but making the noodle sheets is very low down on my list of cooking attempts!  I wanted to try banh cuon cooked to order for my first taste, if at all possible.  It proved a bit elusive because it is not on a huge amount of menus.  In my searching of the internet I also found out that the dish is more prevalent in the north of Vietnam.


It was time to Google again; 'banh cuon review Melbourne'.  This search led me to a review of Thanh Tam (172 Victoria Street, Richmond) by Kat at Spatula Spoon and Saturday.   Kat also reviews a few other dishes at Thanh Tam.

This is the dish that greeted me at Thanh Tam:

Banh cuon $9.00

The rice noodle rolls are filled with cooked minced pork and what could have been black fungus mushrooms too, as that seems to be a usual filling.  You can also order the banh cuon with prawns, or pork and prawns.  

The salad was a pile of mung bean spouts, julienned cucumber, mint and basil leaves.  A Vietnamese dressing is served with the dish so I sluiced it over the salad and the rolls.  The dish is topped with some fried shallots. 

Surrounding the banh cuon and the salad is slices of pork loaf (cha lua) and another loaf called nem chua, which is made up of pork skin shredded and mixed with salt and flavourings and cured. It also has peppercorns in it.  It is quite brightly pink on the plate so I was a bit unnerved by that.  As it turns out, it was really lovely, a very mild taste with the peppercorns.  

Also on the plate was something that looked like a potato croquette, it had a potato taste and a prawn inside.  


This is a cracking dish and will be back for more.

I tried to find out what the croquette thing is called or what is in it, but had no luck.  If anyone is able to tell me about this tasty fried bit of deliciousness, I'd be very grateful!





UPDATE: I think the croquette thing is called Mung Bean Cake.  but there was something else besides the mung beans, maybe taro and it could be called banh cong?

Red quinoa and roasted capsicum salad

I saw this recipe for Red Quinoa Salad with Bell Peppers (capsicums) at Chocolate and Zucchini a while back and filed it way, because it sounded so good.  I've cooked with quinoa before.   There is loads of info about this seed on the net.  Good old Wikipedia had some info and I found some more interesting quinoa info at Stone Soup.

Quinoa comes in three colours, white, red and black.  White is the most common available.  Health food stores and some supermarkets stock it.  I found some at the healthfood shop in Williamstown along with some smoked tofu I used in this salad.  I love quinoa because it is super easy to cook with.  You rinse it in a sieve (apparently it has 'stuff' on it and you  have to rinse it).  Then for one cup of quinoa you use two cups of water and it takes about 10 or 15 minutes to cook.  It freezes well too.

Rinsed quinoa

Cooked quinoa

The recipe also uses roasted red capsicums (bell peppers).  I have always wanted to roast peppers but it always seemed a bit hard.  I followed the directions at Chocolate and Zucchini and I had perfect roast capsicums.  Will be doing that again, they were delicious! 

I mixed the quinoa and roasted capsicum together and divided the mix into three.  The first time I had the salad, I added the dressing (olive oil, apple cider vinegar and a dash of chili powder) some chopped parsley, cubed smoked tofu and some chopped roasted pistachios.  

The second time I ate the salad, I used crumbled feta instead of the tofu.  I prefer the feta much more.  I felt that the smoked tofu was a bit too strong for the dish.  The third version I tried, I ditched the chili.  That is just a personal thing.  I liked it equally with or without the chili.

Final ingredient list: red quinoa, roasted capsicums, oil and vinegar dressing, parsley, feta and roasted pistachios.  A simple tasty salad that would work with any type of quinoa.